Joan of Arc Biography Part 12

By Jules Michelet The Maid of Orleans

The monk's letter was a document
of little weight, and the University
was made to write at the same time.
It was hardly possible that the heads
of the University should lewel any
heartfelt aid to expediting a process
instituted by the Papal Inquisition,
at the very moment they were going
to declare war on the people at Bale,
on behalf of the episcopacy. Winchester himself, the head of the
English episcopacy, must have preferred a
trial by bishops, or, if he could, to
bring bishops and inquisitors to act in
concert together. Now he had in his
train and among his adherents, a bishop
just jBtted for the business, a beggared
bishop, who lived at his table, and who
assuredly would sentence or would
swear just as was wanted.

Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beau
vais, was not a man without merit.
Born at RheimS; near Gerson's place
of birth, he was a very influential doc
tor of the University, and a friend of
Glemengis, who asserts that he was
both "good and beneficent." This
goodness did not hinder him from
being one of the most violent of the
violent Cabochien party ; and as such
he was driven from Paris in 1413. He
reentered the capital with the Duke of
Burgundy, became bishop of Beauvais,
and, under the English rule, was
elected by the University conservator
of its privileges. But the invasion of
northern France by Charles VII., in
1429, was fatal to Cauchon, who
sought to keep Beauvais in the Eng
lish interests, and was thrust out by
the citizens. He did not enjoy him
self at Paris with the dull Bedford,
who had no means of rewarding zeal ;
and repaired to the fount of wealth
and power in England, to Cardinal
Winchester. He became English, he
spoke English. Winchester perceived
the use to which such a man might be
put, and attached him to himself by
doing for him even more than he could
have hoped for. The archbishop of
Rouen having been translated else
where, he recommended him to the
pope to fill that great see. But
neither the pope nor the chapter
would have any thing to do with
Cauchon; and Rouen, at war at the
time with the University of Paris,
could not well receive as its arch
bishop a member of that University.
Here was a complete stop ; and Cau
chon stood with gaping mouth in sight
of the magnificent prey, ever in hopes
that all obstacles would disappear
before the invincible cardinal, full of
devotion to him, and having no other
God.

It was exceedingly opportune that
the Pucelle should have been taken
close to the limits of Cauchon's dio
cese;; not, it is true, within the dio
cese itself; but there was a hope of
making it believed to be so. So Cau
chon wrote, as judge ordinary, to the
king of England, to claim the right of
trying her ; and, on the 12th of June
the University received the king's
letters to the effect that the bishop
and the inquisitor were to proceed to
try her with concurrent powers.
Though the proceedings of the Inqui
sition were not the same as those of
the ordinary tribunals of the Church,
no objection was raised. The two
jurisdictions choosing thus to connive
at each other, one difSculty alone
remained; the accused was still in
the hands of the Burgundians.

The University put herself forward,
and wrote anew to the Duke of Bur
gundy and John of Ligny. Couchon,
in his zeal, undertook to be the agent
of the English, their courier, to carry
the letter himself, and deliver it to the
two dukes,* at the same time, as
bishop, he handed them a summons,
calling upon them to deliver up to
him a prisoner over whom he claimed
jurisdiction. In the course of this
strange document of his, he quits the
character of judge for that of negotia
tor, and makes ofifers of money, stating
that although this woman cannot be
considered a prisoner of war, the king
of England is ready to settle a pen
sion of two or three hundred livres on
the bastard of Vendome, and to give
the sum of six thousand livres to those
who have her in their keeping : then,
towards the close of this missive of
his, he raises his offer to ten thousand,
but pointing out emphatically the mag
nitude of the offer, " As much," he
says, " as the French are accustomed
to give for a king or a prince."

The English did not rely so implic
itly on the steps taken by the Univer
sity, and on Cauchon's negotiations^ as
to neglect the more energetic means.
On the same day that the latter pre
sented his summons, or the day after,
the council in England placed an em
bargo on all traffic with the markets
of the Low Countries, and, above all,
with Antwerp (July 19), prohibiting
the English merchants from purchas
ing linens there, and the other goods
for which they were in the habit of
exchanging their wool. This was in
flicting on the Duke of Burgundy,
Count of Flanders, a blow in the most
sensible part, through the medium of
the great Flemish manufactures, lin
ens and cloth : the English discontin
ued purchasing the one, and supplying
the material for the other.

While the English were thus stren
uously urging on the destruction of
the Pucelle, did Charles VII. take any
steps to save her? None, it appears:
yet he had prisoners in his hands, and
could have protected her by threaten
ing reprisals. A short time before, he
bad set negotiations on foot through
the medium of his chancellor, the arch
bishop of Rheims ; but neither he nor
the other politicians of the council had
ever regarded the Pucelle with much
favor. The AnjouLorraine party, with
the old queen of Sicily, who had taken
her by the hand from the first, could
not, at this precise juncture, interfere
on her behalf with the Duke of Burgundy. The Duke of Lorraine was on
his deathbed; the succession to the
duchy disputed before the breath was
out of his body, and Philippe
was giving his support to a rival of
Rene of Anjou's, - soninlaw and heir
to the Duke of Lorraine.

Thus, on every side, interest and
covetousness declared against the Pu
celle, or produced indiference to her.
The good Charles VIL did nothing for
her, the good Duke Philippe delivered
her up. The house of Anjou coveted
Lorraine, the Duke of Burgundy coveted Brabant; and, most of all, he
desiderated the keeping open the trade
between Flanders and England. The
little had their interests to attend to as
well. John of Ligny looked to in
herit SaintPol, and Cauchon was
graspingat the archbishopric of Rouen.

In vain did John of Ligny's wife
throw herself at his feet, in vain did
she supplicate him not to dishonor
himself. He was no longer a free
man, already had he touched English
gold ; though he gave her up, not, it
is true, directly to the English, but to
the Duke of Burgundy. This house
of Ligny and of SaintPol, with its
recollections of greatness and its un
bridled aspirations, was fated to pur
sue fortune to the end - to the Grfive.
The surrenderer of the Pucelle seems
to have felt all his misery ; he had
painted on his arms a camel succumb
ing under its burden, with the sad
device, unknown to men of heart,
"Nul n'est tenu, impossible," (No
one is held to impossibilities).
What was the prisoner doing the
while ? Her body was at Beaurevoir,
her soul at Compidgne ; she was fighting, Boul and spirit, for the king who
had deserted her. Without her, she
felt that the faithful city of Compiegne
would fall, and, with it, the royal cause
throughout the North. She had pre
viously tried to effect her escape from
the towers of Beaulieu ; and at Beau
revoir she was still more strongly
tempted to fly: she knew that the
English demanded that she should be
given up to them, and dreaded falling
into their hands. She consulted her
saints, and could obtain no other
answer than that it behooved to be
patient, " that her delivery 'v^ould not
be until she had seen the king of the
English." " But," she said within her
self, "can it be that God will suffer
these poor people of Compiegne to
die, who have been, and who are, so
loyal to their lord ? " Presented under
this form of lively discussion, the
temptation prevailed. For the first
time she turned a deaf ear to her
saints : she threw herself from the
tower, and fell at its foot halfdead.
Borne in again and nursed by the
ladies of Ligny, she longed for death,
and persisted in remaining two days
without eating.